Postgame Stroudsburg-Pleasant Valley incident forces security upgrade

Fans will be cordoned off after altercation following district football game

A postgame confrontation between football players and fans has forced Stroudsburg Area School District officials to alter security measures at Ross-Stulgaitis Stadium. Stroudsburg superintendent John Toleno acknowledged that there was an incident involving players leaving the field and fans following Saturday night's football...

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By MIKE KUHNS

poconorecord.com

By MIKE KUHNS

Posted Nov. 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 14, 2012 at 1:05 PM

By MIKE KUHNS

Posted Nov. 14, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 14, 2012 at 1:05 PM

» Social News

STROUDSBURG — A postgame confrontation between football players and fans has forced Stroudsburg Area School District officials to alter security measures at Ross-Stulgaitis Stadium.

Stroudsburg superintendent John Toleno acknowledged that there was an incident involving players leaving the field and fans following Saturday night's football game.

The verbal altercation has forced Toleno and the district's security staff to rope off the area between the exit of the field and the locker rooms for future games.

The changes will be in effect when Stroudsburg hosts the annual Thanksgiving Day game Nov. 22 against East Stroudsburg South.

"We want to eliminate the catcalling," Toleno said of the security change. "It did go on. It happened and we're responsible to make it better."

The number of players and fans involved isn't known, but there were an unusually large amount of fans in the area outside each locker room because of the magnitude of the game.

"I didn't realize how many people mulled around outside the locker room," Toleno said. "Now we realize it and we're going to make it better."

Fans from both teams gathered near the exit of the field and in front of the locker rooms. John Jakobsen, an assistant coach on the Mounties' staff, said he was, "a little nervous" as he tried to get his players to the locker room.

"The fans were a little in your face," Jakobsen said. "Rowdy? Yes. Were the fans rough? Yeah."

Many fans packed the area between the field and the locker room, but Jakobsen said the PV players and coaches conducted themselves with, "absolute class," in helping alleviate a tense situation.

Getting the players to the locker room wasn't easy.

"We couldn't get there," Jakobsen said. "I was disappointed in how we were treated, trying to get to the locker room.

"I'm not saying our fans were perfect either."

PV coach Jim Terwilliger said he didn't witness the postgame altercation. He was giving interviews at the time.

"It was wild when I walked off the field," Terwilliger said. "There were a bunch of fans there."

This isn't the first time Stroudsburg and Pleasant Valley were involved in a postgame altercation. In February 2009 following a boys basketball game at PV, a postgame fight resulted in six students being cited — two charged as adults.

Two security guards were injured in the fight — one with a broken knee, back and ribs, while a second suffered a concussion.

"We do the best that we can, but it happens in a second," Stroudsburg athletic director Beth Ross said. "When you have that type of crowd, you don't know what can happen.

"It's usually not the teams, it's the fans."

Since the incident at Pleasant Valley in 2009, the conference implemented changes where basketball teams didn't pass fans after the game. There haven't been any reported incidents since.

"Kids are well-intentioned and passionate about athletes, but when it becomes personal and it gets ugly we offend somebody," Toleno said. "I'm not blaming anybody, but when it gets to that point it becomes dangerous."